Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay $215 million to settle a class-action lawsuit with a large group of former and current female employees, ending a long-running case that alleged the Wall Street bank systematically discriminated against women.
For the next three years, the U.S. bank will have an independent expert analyze how it evaluates its employees’ performance, and how it elevates staffers from junior to senior positions, according to a statement late Monday that detailed some of the settlement terms. An independent expert would also do pay-equity studies to address any gender pay gaps.
In addition, Goldman will improve certain communications to employees at the vice-president level about career development and the criteria it uses for promotions.
The settlement covers about 2,800 women who have held associate or vice-president positions at the bank’s U.S. investment-banking, investment-management and securities divisions from around the early 2000s up until late March this year.
First filed in 2010, the lawsuit alleged that Goldman discriminated against women in terms of compensation, promotion, performance evaluations and business opportunities. The suit also alleged that female employees were paid less than their equally ranked male counterparts and had fewer opportunities to move up ranks.
“After more than a decade of vigorous litigation, both parties have agreed to resolve this matter,” Jacqueline Arthur, Goldman Sachs’ global head of human capital management, said in a statement released late Monday.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the bank was having settlement discussions aimed at ending the lawsuit. A trial for the case had been scheduled to start in June in the Southern District of New York.
“I have been proud to support this case without hesitation over the last nearly thirteen years and believe this settlement will help the women I had in mind when I filed the case,” Shanna Orlich, one of the women who sued the firm, said in a statement.